Saturday, November 26, 2016

Something Has to Change and Someone Had to Change it. Let it be Trump but Let’s Make Him Perform

An ‘America First' Trump Trade Policy

Donald Trump's election triumph is among the more astonishing in history.

Yet if he wishes to become the father of a new “America First" majority party, he must make good on his solemn promise:

To end the trade deficits that have bled our country of scores of thousands of factories, and to create millions of manufacturing jobs in the USA.

Fail here, and those slim majorities in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin disappear.

The president-elect takes credit for jawboning William Clay Ford to keep his Lincoln plant in Louisville. He is now jawboning Carrier air conditioning to stay in Indiana and not move to Mexico.

Good for him. But these are baby steps toward ending the $800 billion trade deficits in goods America runs annually, or bringing back factories and creating millions of new manufacturing jobs in the USA.

The NAFTA Republicans tell us the plants and jobs are never coming back, that we live in a globalized world, that production will now be done where it can be done cheapest -- in Mexico, China, Asia.

Yet, on Nov. 8, Americans rejected this defeatism rooted in the tracts of 19th-century British scribblers and the ideology of 20th-century globalists like Woodrow Wilson and FDR.

America responded to Trump’s call for a new nationalism rooted in the economic principles and patriotism of Hamilton and the men of Mount Rushmore: Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.

The president-elect has declared the TPP dead, and says he and his negotiators will walk away rather than accept another NAFTA.

Again, good, but again, not good enough, not nearly.

The New International Economic Order imposed upon us for decades has to be overthrown.

For the root cause of the trade deficits bleeding us lies in U.S. tax laws and trade policies that punish companies that stay in America and reward companies that move production overseas.

Executives move plants to Mexico, Asia and China for the same reason U.S. industrialists moved plants from the Frost Belt to the Sun Belt. Given the lower wages and lighter regulations, they can produce more cheaply there.

In dealing with advanced economies like Japan, Germany, and the EU, another critical factor is at work against us.

Since the Kennedy Round of trade negotiations, 50 years ago, international trade deals have reduced tariffs to insignificance.

But our trade rivals have replaced the tariffs with value-added taxes on imports from the USA. Even to belong to the EU, a country must have a VAT of at least 15 percent.

As Kevin Kearns of the U.S. Business and Industry Council writes, Europeans have replaced tariffs on U.S. goods with a VAT on U.S. goods, while rebating the VAT on Europe’s exports to us.

Some 160 countries impose VAT taxes. Along with currency manipulation, this is how European and Asian protectionists stick it to the Americans, whose armed forces have defended them for 60 years.

We lose at trade negotiations, even before we sit down at the table, because our adversaries declare their VAT nonnegotiable. And we accept it.

Trump has to persuade Congress to deal him and our trade negotiators our own high cards, without our having to go to the WTO and asking, "Mother, may I?"

Like this writer, Kearns argues for an 18 percent VAT on all goods and services entering the United States. All tax revenue raised by the VAT -- hundreds of billions -- should be used to reduce U.S. taxes, beginning by ending the income tax on small business and reducing to the lowest rate in the advanced world the U.S. corporate income tax.

The price of foreign-made goods in U.S. stores would rise, giving a competitive advantage to goods made in America. And with a border VAT of 18 percent, every U.S. corporate executive would have to consider the higher cost of leaving the United States to produce abroad.

Every foreign manufacturer, to maintain free access to the U.S. market of $17 trillion, greatest on earth, would have to consider shifting production -- factories, technology, jobs -- to the USA.

The incentive to produce abroad would diminish and disappear. The incentive to produce here would grow correspondingly.

Inversions -- U.S. companies seeking lower tax rates by moving to places like Ireland -- would end. Foreign companies and banks would be clamoring to get into the United States.

With a zero corporate tax, minority businesses would spring up. Existing businesses would have more cash to hire. America would shove China aside as the Enterprise Zone of the world.

Most important, by having Americans buy more from each other, and rely more on each other for the necessities of life, U.S. trade and tax policies would work to create a greater interdependence among us, rather than pull us apart as they do today.

Why not write new tax and trade laws that bring us together, recreating the one nation and people we once were -- and can be again?

182 comments:

The Democratic Party chairman in Youngstown, Ohio, wrote to Hillary Clinton’s advisers in May warning she needed to put a jobs-focused message at the heart of her White House campaign or else watch blue-collar voters in states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania slip away to Republican Donald Trump.

Clinton never responded to Betras, and in the final weeks of her campaign she spent much of her time portraying Trump as unfit, rather than highlighting her economic plans. On Nov. 8, Election Day, Betras' warning proved prescient - she lost Ohio and Pennsylvania and, on Wednesday, Michigan, too, based on the latest unofficial ballot counts.

The surprising upset by Trump, a wealthy businessman who made his promises to renegotiate trade deals and restore jobs a centerpiece of his agenda, was fueled in part by support from white working-class voters in those vital Rust Belt states and elsewhere.

After the disastrous election losses at the state and national level, Betras and other Rust Belt Democrats who have found success in blue-collar districts have some advice for their anxious party: the key to recapturing those voters is not a broad change in policy, but a new commitment to listen and act on their economic concerns, and to show Democrats care.

"You can have all the great ideas on Earth, but if they don't think you are on their side they aren't going to listen to you," said U.S. Representative Dan Kildee, of Flint, Michigan, one of a small cadre of Democrats in Congress who have learned how to win in working-class districts by emphasizing economic solutions.

Democratic U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright, whose district around Scranton, Pennsylvania, was one of the presidential campaign's prime battlegrounds, also won re-election to a third term with about 54 percent of the vote. About 40,000 Trump voters crossed over to back him, he said in an interview.

"Why would they pick me and not also Hillary Clinton? It comes down to credibility," he said. "I know the pain out there. When I talk to voters, jobs is always my No. 1 message, and I tell them exactly what I'm doing to get more jobs back to the district."

Recalling the 1992 presidential campaign theme of Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton, Cartwright added: “It's the economy, stupid. These folks are working harder and harder to try and stay in the same place.”

...By tapping into those economic worries, Trump captured about two-thirds of whites with no college degree, exit polls showed. That helped him gain the razor-thin margin of victory he needed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan - all picked up by President Barack Obama in 2012 - to win the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote.

In contrast to Trump, whose rallies were a call to arms against an economic system rigged against everyday Americans, Clinton mentioned but rarely highlighted the many aspects of her economic agenda during the final weeks of the campaign.

"We were so off message that a billionaire with gold-plated toilets was the guy who was breaking through and talking to blue-collar families," said Betras, party chairman in Ohio's heavily Democratic Mahoning County, where Trump captured 47 percent of the vote, 12 percentage points better than Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

Betras said many blue-collar workers increasingly felt forgotten by the national party, which at times seemed more focused on social and cultural issues than on bread-and-butter economic concerns.

The Democratic National Committee did not respond to questions about the party's efforts to win working-class voters.

Betras had urged Clinton in his memo to spend more time talking about ways to entice companies to repatriate manufacturing jobs, or her plans to create jobs through boosting infrastructure programs - both key elements of Trump's stump speech.

Trump consistently outperformed Romney's 2012 totals in areas with heavy concentrations of working-class whites. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, partially in Cartwright's district, Trump won 58 percent of the vote compared to Romney's 47 percent. In neighboring Lackawanna County, Trump won 47 percent of the vote compared to Romney's 36 percent.

Fidel Castro is finally dead at age 90 after years of ill health. But the Cuban people are still not free and won't be until every last vestige of his calamitous rule is gone.

Castro was actually just another Latin American thug who came to power promising heaven and ended up creating a communist hell from which millions sought to escape. But he became the darling of the left when he thumbed his nose at the United States, appropriating American property, executing his political enemies, and laying a stifling hand of oppression on his own people.

He tried exporting his murderous revolution to places near and far but rarely suceeded. Acolytes like Che Guevera also became legends, their bloody rampages covered up by a press willing to believe in the fairy tale of a "workers' paradise."

But always, there was a hatred of the United States so profound that anyone who expressed pro-American sentiments was considered a traitor and counterrevolutionary, receiving stiff prison sentences for their thought crimes.

Miami Herald:

As he changed the face of Cuba, he remapped South Florida as well, transforming it from the southernmost tip of the United States to the northernmost point of Latin America. The suffering of the refugees he sent pouring into Miami eventually turned to triumph as they forged economic and political success.

He was a spellbinding orator who was also a man of action. His tall and powerful build was matched by an outsized ego, boundless energy and extraordinary luck that carried him to victory as a guerrilla leader in 1959 against nearly impossible odds, then helped him survive countless plots hatched by his countless enemies.

He ended American domination of the island’s economy, swept away the old political system and the traditional army, nationalized large and small land holdings and brought reforms in education and healthcare.

He also was a ruthless dictator, the Maximum Leader who reneged on his promise of free elections, executed thousands of opponents, imprisoned tens of thousands, installed a Communist regime and made his island a pawn in the Cold War. His alliance with the Soviet Union brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in 1962.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was neither Castro’s first nor last confrontation with the United States, though it was certainly the most epic. No other individual has ever tormented Washington more or longer. At age 12, Castro wrote to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, congratulating him on his third inauguration as president and impudently asking for a dollar. By the time he was 35, two American presidents had devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to killing him.

Over and over, whether by arming Latin American revolutionaries or sheltering fugitives from U.S. justice or unleashing great waves of refugees, Castro enraged his great enemy to the north — and often threw it into domestic disarray as well. The U.S. political controversies that followed the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 2000 custody battle over Elián González played a large role in costing first Jimmy Carter and then Al Gore the presidency.

A man in love with the sound of his own voice, his interminably long speeches - many lasting 4 or 5 hours - were drearily the same: US - bad; socialism - good; Castro - great. He destroyed the Cuban economy, ruined its healthcare system, and systematically oppressed the people with the largest police state in Latin America until Venezuela's Hugo Chavez came along.

I will never ever understand why the left made this murderous, tinpot dictator and run of the mill thug into some kind of larger than life hero. So what if he wanted everyone to have healthcare and a job? He never came close to supplying it for his own people and bamboozled the easily bamboozled left into believing he did. High ranking Communist party members - especially the Castro family - were the only ones to benefit from his and his brother's rule. They had the hard currency to buy luxury items that ordinary Cubans could only dream about. In fact, his regime resembled a mafia family business more than a nation state.

I hope that President Trump will take a step back from enabling the oppression of what's left of Castro's kleptocracy. Until Fidel's brother Raul allows the sort of fundamental political freedoms enjoyed by many in Latin America, lifting sanctions and other actions that favor the regime should be delayed.

The underlying principle in free trade agreements is that you treat foreign produced goods on an equal footing with domestically pr8duced goods. In Canada, for example, all US produced goods and all Canadian produced goods are subject to VAT. The VAT is a tax that all Canadians must. It would be absurd to make US folk pay Canadian VAT, whether they buy the goods in Canada or the US. You know the old saw about no taxation without representation? Why do you think Americans should pay tax to Canada or Europe?

With respect to the specific charge that it amounts to an export subsidy I believe that is mistaken. I sell my product for the same price to a US based client and a Canadian based client. The Canadian based client has to pay tax on the product the US client doesn't. The tax has or lack thereof makes no difference to me, the producer of the product. I receive no subsidy in either case.

It looks like the VAT and the Tariff are the same in effect when it comes to exported goods. They both provide an advantage to the domestically produced products in terms of price. They both inhibit so-called 'free-trade'. Whether they are the same or one is worse than the other merely depends on the size of the Tariff or VAT.

Of course, that would merely be its effect on imported goods. Haven't thought about whether other factors that would actually affect domestic producers. Seems like the VAT is more complicated and I suspect it is also less progressive.

Mr. Trump’s ties to foreign properties, developers and lenders may prove to be the trickiest ethical challenge of all.

"The fear is that he will endanger American national and financial security to benefit the Trump organization’s bottom line,” Mr. Liebowitz argued. “I’m not saying he’s going to do that, but there is the spectre of that, especially in dealing with foreign countries.”

Among Mr. Trump’s global assets are roughly 10 deals in which developers pay him millions of dollars to use the Trump name on their buildings, including planned projects in countries where the lines between business and government are often murky – in the Middle East, China and former Soviet bloc countries. Over all, Mr. Trump has done business in 18 foreign countries, including hotel and condo towers in Toronto and Vancouver.

He has ties in countries where the United States has sensitive national security interests, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China. His properties in many of these countries would become obvious security risks, merely because they bear his name. Imagine if the U.S. was embroiled in a political showdown or a conflict with a country where the Trump Organization has assets. Would Mr. Trump put U.S. lives at risk to protect a Trump property?"

Celebrations continue and grow in Florida, mandatory mourning period in Havana -

Fee feeFie fieI can smellHis fat begin to fry

November 26, 2016A very hot place awaits FidelBy Silvio Canto, Jr.

In the end, he died like most people do – i.e., old age. No CIA assassination. No overthrow. Just an old man probably connected to a bunch of machines staying alive.

For most of us Cubans, and the ones who grew up here like me, this is a moment when images fly in your head.

First, I recall the morning Batista fled and the expectations. My mother serving us breakfast and my father on the phone talking about the future of Cuba. The phone did not stop ringing. My mother kept bringing my father coffee and offering her opinions as well. The TV was on with constant reports of Cuba. The Voice of America in Spanish on my father's short wave radio.

Most importantly, no one that morning had a clue of what would happen to Cuba in a few years.

Second, the Bay of Pigs and the Missile Crisis. As my mother would joke later: "¡Nosotros los primeros!" Or loosely translated, we would have been the first ones to go if the missiles were fired. Thankfully, the missiles were not fired, and my mother's words did not come to pass.

Third, I will always remember the day we left and the look on my mother's face when the plane took off.

Most of all, we remember how he destroyed Cuba. He came to power when Cuba was a very prosperous island with a growing middle class. It is not that country anymore, as Tim Worstall wrote:

Fidel Castro, the Communist Dictator of Cuba, has died at the age of 90. There have been those, over the decades, who have held him up as some paragon of a new world order, one in which people will not be subservient to either America nor capitalism. The truth is that he visited an economic disaster upon the island nation of Cuba. No, it was not the US, it was not any blockade or embargo, not anything external to Cuba that caused this, it was quite simply the idiocy of the economic policy followed, that socialism, which led to there being near no economic growth at all over the 55 years or so of his rule. What little that did occur happening when the strictest of his rules were relaxed.

It is polite, human and common to withhold criticism of the dead in the immediate aftermath of their demise. But leaving 11 million people grossly poorer than they ought to be in the name of a bankrupt ideology is not the stuff of which hagiographic obituaries are made

He promised elections but kept delaying them. They never happened.

He denied that he was communist and locked up people like my dad's cousin for publicly saying so. A bit later, he declared himself a communist but did not release those who called him one.

In the end, he leaves a poor island with very little hope. He leaves political prisons, families crushed, and empty store shelves.

What happens now? This is a great opportunity for President-Elect Trump to demand some real concessions from the island's leadership.

Fidel's death is really the end of communism in Cuba. Raúl is also an old man and probably won't be around in a few years, either.

Cuba is screaming for change. Let's hear it and demand real concessions from Raúl Castro.

And please don't insult the memory of so many by sending a big delegation to his funeral. Stay away and show your respect for the thousands executed by this regime.

Trump said weeks before the election that Obama has propped up Cuba economically and politically “in exchange for nothing.”Obama’s statement on Saturday didn’t mention a single human rights abuse during the decades-long reign of the Cuban dictator -- including avoiding the word “dictator.”The statement appeared calculated to not offend Cuba’s government, including President Raul Castro, with whom Obama has reestablished diplomatic ties and hopes to lift the decades-old trade embargo. Indeed, Obama extended his condolences to Castro’s family.Trump’s reaction started early on Saturday with a seemingly celebratory tweet -- “Fidel Castro is dead!” -- to his 16 million Twitter followers.A formal statement followed, blasting Castro. “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights,” Trump said.

Kushner’s father, Charles, is the son of Holocaust survivors and the architect of a real estate empire in New Jersey. He donated generously to schools, charities and Democratic politicians, but his finances caught the attention of federal authorities, led by the then-U.S. Atty. Chris Christie, who investigated him for tax evasion and improper campaign contributions.

Follow coverage of the presidential transition on Trail Guide »

The investigation took an ugly turn as the elder Kushner’s brother and sister cooperated with authorities, and he sought revenge in a sordid sting operation. He hired a prostitute to seduce his sister’s husband, videotaped the sexual encounter in a motel room, and mailed the recording to his sister.

The scheme backfired, becoming one more piece of the federal case against him. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison.

The case tore apart the family but did not shake Jared Kushner’s devotion to his father.

“I felt what happened was obviously unjust in terms of the way [prosecutors] pursued him,” he told the Real Deal, a real estate website, in 2014.

The prosecution of Charles Kushner was one of the high-profile cases that helped propel Christie, a Republican, into New Jersey’s governorship in 2010.

The misnomer is “free Trade”. It is not even close,it mismanaged trade.The only way it could be free trade is if there were universal norms on domestic taxes,social burdens,environmental restrictions, currency transactions etc.

The United States is running an $850 billion trade deficit. That is all that needs to be said.

I have just spoken with the President Raúl Castro to convey solidarity and love to the Pueblo de Cuba following the departure of the Comandante Fidel Castro

It’s rather amazing that Maduro had any time to mourn the passing of his friend. After all, one might imagine that the government of Venezuela would be rather busy at the moment, what with a new diaspora taking place before their eyes. Yes, as the New York Times describes in a lengthy report this week, hundreds of thousands of starving Venezuelans have fled on foot, on bicycles, in rafts and small boats, seeking someplace where they don’t necessarily want to find freedom, but just some food.

Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East.

But after President Hugo Chávez vowed to break the country’s economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class fled to more welcoming countries in droves, creating what demographers describe as Venezuela’s first diaspora.

Now a second diaspora is underway — much less wealthy and not nearly as welcome.

Well over 150,000 Venezuelans have fled the country in the last year alone, the highest in more than a decade, according to scholars studying the exodus.

In some ways the NY Times report is worth a read, even for as long as it is, if only for the heartbreaking interviews and first person stories of the refugees who have managed to escape. Even worse are the tales told by those waiting for their relatives who left on rafts but never arrived at their destinations. The driving factor for all of them was to simply get to someplace where they might be able to find something to eat and perhaps a job which pays them something – anything – in a form of cash with some value. Inflation in Venezuela is over 500% currently and is estimated to hit 1,600% next year. Their currency is basically worthless and only those with connections to the government can locate any food.

What’s missing from the Times article (curiously enough) is any mention whatsoever of a single name: Nicolas Maduro.

To steal a line from Billy Joel, Maduro didn’t start this fire (which was really ignited by Hugo Chavez) but he’s clearly done nothing to put it out, either. After the food supplies began running out, the people started an effort to recall Maduro from office. He promptly shot that down. The legislature then attempted to begin impeachment proceedings but the President managed to squelch that effort as well. When starving people standing in lines at empty grocery markets rioted during an appearance by the President and essentially chased him out of town, he responded by making it illegal to try to buy too much food at one time.

Yes, Maduro probably did feel a great deal of kinship with Castro. The two are very much alike. Venezuela has fallen further under the shadow of socialist tyranny and its people are literally starving in the streets and dying as they attempt to flee the country. This is how socialism always ends and it’s a horror show from start to finish. The next great diaspora is underway and it’s Venezuela’s neighbors who will bear the burden of saving these people from their tyrant.

WASH POST Promotes McCarthyite Blacklist From a New, Hidden, and Very Shady Group....DRUDGE

Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes a McCarthyite Blacklist From a New, Hidden, and Very Shady Group

Ben Norton

Glenn Greenwald

November 26 2016, 10:17 a.m.

THE WASHINGTON POST ON THURSDAY NIGHT promoted the claims of a new, shadowy organization that smears dozens of U.S. news sites that are critical of U.S. foreign policy as being “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda.” The article by reporter Craig Timberg – headlined “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say” – cites a report by a new, anonymous website calling itself “PropOrNot,” which claims that millions of Americans have been deceived this year in a massive Russian “misinformation campaign.”

The group’s list of Russian disinformation outlets includes WikiLeaks and the Drudge Report, as well as Clinton-critical left-wing websites such as Truthout, Black Agenda Report, Truthdig and Naked Capitalism, as well as libertarian venues such as Antiwar.com and the Ron Paul Institute.

This Post report was one of the most widely circulated political news articles on social media over the last 48 hours, with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of U.S. journalists and pundits with large platforms hailing it as an earth-shattering exposé. It was the most-read piece on the entire Post website after it was published on Friday.

Yet the article is rife with obviously reckless and unproven allegations, and fundamentally shaped by shoddy, slothful journalistic tactics. It was not surprising to learn that, as BuzzFeed’s Sheera Frenkel noted, “a lot of reporters passed on this story.” Its huge flaws are self-evident. But the Post gleefully ran with it and then promoted it aggressively, led by its Executive Editor Marty Baron:...

Army Corps to close protest camp near Dakota Access PipelineNov 26, 2016 8:01 PM by John Sexton

But updates by the Associated Press suggest the protesters will not be leaving quietly:

Isaac Weston is a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe from South Dakota. He was one of several people who spoke at a news conference Saturday in response to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to close land where hundreds have been camping for months.

Weston says indigenous people are the wardens of the land and the government can’t remove them. He says they have a right to be there, and they are protecting the land and water.

PIG LATIN PERISHES AT LASTCastro’s death confirms the depravity of the left.

November 26, 2016 Lloyd Billingsley Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to More10Share to Print

In Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Vincent Canby of the New York Times noted in his review of Nestor Almendros’ Improper Conduct, “playwrights, doctors, poets and painters as well as more ordinary folk such as tour guides and hairdressers, a number of whom spent time in one or more of the country’s forced-labor camps.”

And as the late Susan Sontag observed: “The discovery that homosexuals were being persecuted in Cuba shows, I think, how much the left needs to evolve.”

More than three decades later, the response to the death of Fidel Castro confirms that the left has not evolved at all, and may even be worse than during the dictator’s heyday. As Paul Hollander showed in Political Pilgrims, that was about as bad as it gets.

“Fidel sits on the side of a tank rumbling into Havana on New Year’s day,” wrote New Left icon Abbie Hoffman. “He laughs joyously and pinches a few rumps. . . Fidel lets the gun drop to the ground, slaps his thigh and stands erect. He is like a mighty penis coming to life, and when he is tall and straight, the crowd immediately is transformed.”

For American leftist writer and academic Saul Landau, Fidel Castro was “a man who has been steeped in democracy,” and “a humble man.” For Angela Davis, American academic and Communist Party candidate for vice-president in 1980 and 1984, “Fidel was their leader, but most of all he was also their brother in the largest sense of the word.” And so on, to a pitch of absurdity perhaps best captured by Norman Mailer, who said of Castro:

“You were the first and greatest hero to appear in the world since the Second World War, the answer to the argument of commissars and statesmen that revolutions cannot last, that they turn corrupt or total or eat their own.” Castro did all that, and more, but on his exit, more than 60 years too late, the left cut loose a torrent of hagiography.

British Labour Party boss Jeremy Corbyn said Castro “will be remembered both as an internationalist and a champion of social justice.” He did have “flaws” but Corbyn did not elaborate.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Fidel Castro was a “remarkable leader,” who “made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.” He was also “a controversial figure,” but the prime minister, son of pro-Castro prime minister Pierre Trudeau, did not say what might have caused the controversy.

Former Soviet boss Mikhail Gorbachev said Castro “strengthened his country at the time of the toughest American blockade” and led his county “onto the road of independent development.” For Chinese president Xi Jinping, “dear comrade and true friend” Fidel Castro made “immortal contributions to the development of socialism around the world.”

Likewise, for French president Francois Hollande, Fidel Castro “represented, for Cubans, pride in rejecting external domination.” Vladimir Putin, called Castro, “a wise and strong person,” an “inspiring example for all countries and peoples,” and a “sincere and reliable friend of Russia.”

President Obama, who like those Olympic referees in 1972 put time back on the clock for the Castro dictatorship, recalled, “the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation.” The U.S. president also hailed “the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.” Muslim leaders were also fond of the man.

In 2006, the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan wrote to Fidel Castro:

“I firmly believe that Allah (God) has chosen you and the Cuban people to begin this process of servicing human needs, thus setting the stage for all people of goodwill to emulate this mode of service to others.”

In 2014 Farrakhan said: “Fidel Castro made solidarity among the peoples the reason of his existence.” In similar style in 1992, Iranian Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khameini said “it is his personality to believe and rely on people.”

The apologists might have consulted the various Amnesty International reports, which hardly capture the full picture. With no apology to Francois Hollande, Fidel Castro allowed the Soviet Union to impose complete domination of Cuba. That helped Fidel Castro drive a prosperous nation to sub-Haiti levels of poverty. His repression was such that Cubans flee at the first opportunity, leaving everything behind, at great risk to their own lives. That is why the Straits of Florida have become a graveyard without crosses.

The social justice crowd might have a look at Orlando Jimenez-Leal’s documentary 8A, which captures Castro’s show-trial of General Arnaldo Ochoa and other officers. Their government lawyers pleaded with the court that their clients must receive the death penalty, duly carried out with no appeal.

The entertainment and artistic communities might recall that Fidel Castro called American jazz the “music of the enemy” and jailed trumpeter Arturo Sandoval for listening to the Voice of America. Saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera defected in 1981 but it was ten years before the Castro regime would allow his family to join him.

Meanwhile, as Susan Sontag said, the left needs to evolve but at Castro’s death the left remains essentially uncritical of this truly porcine figure. If leftist politicians are so wrong about a sado-Stalinist dictator and his totalitarian Communist regime, why should anybody listen to them on anything else?

“Fidel Castro’s legacy,” said Donald Trump in a statement, “is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.”

The president-elect should tap Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D’Rivera to put together a band for the inauguration.

“Fidel Castro’s legacy,” said Donald Trump in a statement, “is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.”

Says the man who wants to 'enhance' enhanced interrogation techniques and thinks Assad is someone he can work with.

The martyr is special to Allah. He is forgiven from the first drop of blood [that he sheds]. He sees his throne in paradise…. He will wed the Houris [[a.k.a. “voluptuous women”] and will not know the torments of the grave and safeguards against the greater horror [hell]. Fixed atop his head will be a crown of honor, a ruby that is greater than the world and all it contains. And he will copulate with seventy-two Houris.

As one Muslim captain searched for his nephew, Suwayed, in a field of Muslim corpses, he found him dying on the ground. When the man came into the vision of the fallen youth, Suwayed began to cry. He explained that, after being speared by a Byzantine, “something amazing began to happen to me: the Houris are standing beside me, awaiting my soul’s departure.” Another Muslim reported that he came upon a fallen comrade in a strange posture:

“I saw him smitten on the ground, and I watched as he lifted his fingers to the sky. I understood he was rejoicing, for he saw the Houris.”

While waving his standard, another Muslim battalion leader told his men that a furious rush against the “Christian dogs” is synonymous with a “rush to the embraces of the Houris.”

** Note 2 - Quirk's Quartz'n'Quarry merely acts a retail source for Idaho 'Diamond' Bob Diamonds, Molybdenum and Lunar Basalt and accepts neither responsibility nor liability for any claims or products made by this source of the quality or authenticity of goods coming from this source. We know nothing and that's the way we are going to keep it. Thank you. The Management.

Beginning to have second thoughts about King Hussein and his Jordanians - always wondered where all those ISIS pickup trucks came from -

Seventh, the King’s ISIS connections are not limited to selling weapons. The king’s support for radical Islamist terrorists extends beyond supplying them with weapons. Specifically, on 15 October 2015, Arab media confirmed reports that 4,500 trucks sold by Toyota to the Jordanian government have ended up in the hands of ISIS. The King’s spokesperson has never commented on the matter, and we as an organization have asked how this could happen.

November 27, 2016Why Three American Soldiers Were Killed in JordanBy Mudar Zahran

I think it was this smug smirking moron Trudeau that said Fidel was 'the George Washington of Cuba'.

Let's not forget all the queers in Cuba were/are put in're-education' camps.

I was listening to an elderly lady whose son had joined a humanitarian air rescue team and was shot down and killed, along with three others, back in the 90's, for trying to locate and rescue some Cubans rafters, lost and heading for Florida. Shot down by a Cuban Mig-29.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on the death of former Cuban President Fidel Castro:

“It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest serving President.

“Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.

“While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante”.

“I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.”

Trudeau's comments on education and health care are probably true; however, I saw a story this morning about how the state controls everything including Castro's funeral, no excessive crying or laughing.

One older Cuban commented on the fact that they had to cancel the birthday party they had planned for his one year old grandson because of the funeral.

Trudeau's not the only world leader who appreciated Castro. He supported popular revolutions across the world especially in Africa and Central and South America. The problem was that he did it all on the backs of the Cubam people.

The young guy who despite growing up around politics still is a relative neophyte to actually being involved in politics or governing. His cabinet is diverse but pretty inexperienced. Yet, he is a media darling and liked throughout the world especially in the EU and the Commonwealth nations.

But it's early times.

What I find a little humorous is that I've seen a number of articles putting forth the argument that Trudeau could be the guy who saves the trade deals currently being rejected by the US, TTP, TTIP, and NAFTA also that he may provide a calming force to help control some of Trump's impetuousness.

The scary thing is that Canadians might actually start believing Trudeau's press reports. Saw this article from a Canadian columnist this morning...

I found myself a few days ago listening with slack-jawed incredulity while two former Canadian ambassadors in the Middle East and a pompous Anglo-Canadian academic historian expressed the hope that Justin Trudeau would advise the incoming foreign policy team of the Trump administration that not all of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims consider themselves to be at war with America. It was the clearest confirmation of many I have had in recent years of just how vastly more stupid our media have become and how chronically misinformed the people are. I have not seen such delusions of Canadian grandeur since the days when Tommy Douglas and Paul Martin Sr. were debating which of them would negotiate the end to the Vietnam War.

Unless Canada’s luck has deserted it, this debate about how to educate the Americans will have cooled before President Trump invoices Canada for its unpaid share of national defence costs, unless it chooses to do without the assurance of the American alliance for the first time since President Roosevelt proclaimed it at Queen’s University in Kingston in 1938. Stephen Harper left us as a mouse that roared until no one paid heed. His successor, whatever the fantasies of the Canadian media, will soon have the choice of strutting the world stage as a peacemaker while continuing to freeload off U.S. protection, or leading a country no one listens to, informed by a media no sane person can believe. I dare to hope we can do better than that.

Hillary has apparently rejected resignation and reconciliation in favor of stubborn resistance and recriminations. This from the lady who conceded the election a day after it was decided. This from the lady who lectured Trump that 'not accepting the results of the election endangers the political process and the union' or words to that effect.

She continues to diminish herself.

As for Jill Stein, if nothing else she is at least transparent about the re-count scam. She says she doesn't expect the recount to change anything. She even says the money she is collecting might not be used for the recount. What she doesn't say is that any money not spent on the recount ($ millions )will be returned to the contributors. Basically, it's a fundraising effort for the Green Party (I assume Jill won't benefit from it personally).

In watching the left's reaction to the Trump election it confirms all the stereotypes that have been discussed here before, the hypocrisy, the pomposity, the elitism, even the vindictiveness have all been taken to a new level.

The following article kind of encapsulates the whole sorry story in talking about the poster boy for the East Coast intellectuals, Paul Krugman, and his views on the re-count scam.

Got that? When a Republican challenges the results of an election, it’s a “coup.” When the loser is a Democrat, however, such a challenge is absolutely necessary, “just in case.” The next four years are not going to be kind to Paul Krugman and to people like him: they are going to discredit themselves even more thoroughly than they already have, all under the auspices of an insufferable, smarmy intellectual superiority. Can you imagine what it will be like for them when Trump wins a second time?

For another cute take read Mo Dowd's experience with her conservative relatives on Thanksgiving Day.

The recall effort is just one more example of the coasts going batshit crazy after this election.

The NYT had a story today about how the media elites in the press are frightened about being persecuted and being carted off to jail under a Trump administration similar to journalists in Turkey, Egypt, or Iran. They seem to forget that more journalists were prosecuted under Obama than any other president, actually more than all the other presidents combined.

While it is a bit cathardic to see these reactions it is also a bit scary to see that there is such a large proportion of the population, especially people with power, that are nutz. Reading some of the stuff they publish you get the feeling that their pathologies will only grow worse.

I think I'll expand my stock of drool cups. I expect they could be a big seller this year.

Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country. We wish the Cuban citizens peace and prosperity in the years ahead.

"I was motivated to be different in part because I was different.Civic education and civic responsibility should be taught in elementary school.Because of my faith and my imagination, I was able to enjoy my childhood, even though it was tough."

Allahpundit noted portions of this yesterday after the news of Castro’s death first broke, but if you thought Barack Obama’s comments on the dictator were rather milquetoast that was nothing compared to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. After talking about how he was “deeply saddened” at Castro’s passing, he went on to describe how he was a “larger-than-life leader who made significant improvements to Cuba’s education and health-care systems.”

The pushback on that began almost immediately. One of the first out of the gate was Marco Rubio.

Follow Marco Rubio ✔ @marcorubioIs this a real statement or a parody? Because if this is a real statement from the PM of Canada it is shameful & embarrassing. https://twitter.com/canadianpm/status/802492634854031360 …11:11 AM - 26 Nov 2016

The Toronto Star reported that it wasn’t just criticism from abroad. Right at home in Canada there were opponents of Trudeau lighting into him.

Conservative leadership hopeful Lisa Raitt wrote on Facebook that Trudeau should be ashamed of himself after his remarks.

“With those words, Justin Trudeau has placed himself on the wrong side of history — against the millions of Cubans yearning for freedom. The prime minister should be ashamed of himself. He must retract this statement and apologize,” she wrote.

Others running to be party leader also weighed in, including Maxime Bernier and Kellie Leitch.It took a while, but the PM seemed to eventually notice that much of the world was rather aghast at his muted response. So when the opportunity came to take some follow-up questions, he made sure to let everyone know that he gets it. (Jerusalem Post)

On Sunday, Trudeau said the statement was simply meant “to recognize the passing of a former head of state” of a country that Canada had longstanding ties with, and not to gloss over unflattering history.

“The fact is Fidel Castro had a deep and lasting impact on the Cuban people,” Trudeau told reporters in a televised news conference at a Madagascar Francophonie summit.

“He certainly was a polarizing figure and there certainly were significant concerns around human rights, that’s something I’m open about and that I’ve highlighted.”“Unflattering history?” Is that what the kids are calling it these days? And his choice of clarification was to say that he’s aware that there were significant concerns around human rights. Yes, I suppose one might have significant concerns over lining up your political opponents in a yard without benefit of a trial and gunning them down. And that’s not to mention the fact that he murdered some unknown number of people with his own hands. His prisons remain full of horrible criminals such as nuns who dared to talk about religion and teachers who had the temerity to suggest that people might have the right to express their own opinions.

So given all of this feedback, did Trudeau come up with anything critical to say about Castro? Yes… once the right question was put to him.

Asked whether he thought Castro was a dictator, Trudeau said: “Yes.”Was he a dictator?

But before we get too judgemental on Canada’s leader, it would be remiss of me not to note that the DNC hasn’t exactly been standing strong on the subject either. Peter Hasson at the Daily Caller has the disturbing details.

Torn between its establishment wing — which cheered on Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign — and an increasingly frustrated socialist wing, the Democratic party took no official position on the death of a murderous tyrant who shamelessly trampled human rights in the name of socialism.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did offer a strong statement rebuking Castro. But the DNC, interim DNC chair Donna Brazile and the two men vying to replace her — Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison and former Gov. Howard Dean — all remained silent on the subject of Castro’s death. Socialist Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders initially stayed silent on Castro’s death, later saying would “not praise Fidel Castro” after being pressed by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz.

Everything old is new again and apparently socialism is all the rage in some quarters. Living in a society which is ostensibly organized on the principles of law an order it’s amazing that anyone could reflect on Castro’s passing without being appalled at the legacy of murder, torture and oppression. But it’s yet again an opportunity to point out that this is how socialism always ends.

The recount in Wisconsin, and the coming ones in Michigan and Pennsylvania will not change the outcomes in any of the states. No recount ever changes thousands of votes. I do not think that is the purpose.

The recounts, if done by hand, which can be demanded, may take longer than the last day for completing the official counts in a state and directing Electoral College voters. If all 3 states miss the deadline, Trump is at 260, Hillary at 232. No one hits 270.

Then this goes to Congress, where the House voting 1 vote per state elects Trump, and Senate selects Pence. This would be first time Pthis happened since 1824, but in that case, John Quincy Adams won in the House, though he had fewer electoral college votes than Andrew Jackson.

If this goes to the US House and Senate, and the result is the same as result from the Electoral College without the recounts, why do it? The answer is to make Trump seem even more illegitimate, that he did not win the popular vote (he lost by over 2.1 million), he did not win the Electoral College (did not reach 270), and was elected by being inserted into the presidency by members of his own party in Congress.

The recount in Wisconsin, and the coming ones in Michigan and Pennsylvania will not change the outcomes in any of the states. No recount ever changes thousands of votes. I do not think that is the purpose.

The recounts, if done by hand, which can be demanded, may take longer than the last day for completing the official counts in a state and directing Electoral College voters. If all 3 states miss the deadline, Trump is at 260, Hillary at 232. No one hits 270.

Then this goes to Congress, where the House voting 1 vote per state elects Trump, and Senate selects Pence. This would be first time Pthis happened since 1824, but in that case, John Quincy Adams won in the House, though he had fewer electoral college votes than Andrew Jackson.

If this goes to the US House and Senate, and the result is the same as result from the Electoral College without the recounts, why do it? The answer is to make Trump seem even more illegitimate, that he did not win the popular vote (he lost by over 2.1 million), he did not win the Electoral College (did not reach 270), and was elected by being inserted into the presidency by members of his own party in Congress.

Hillary may have won the popular vote.....but with the help of about 3 million illegal alien voters.....those 'undocumented Democrats'......

On the other hand, since many absentee votes are not counted if a state is not close - California, New York....she may not have won the popular vote at all....Republican absentee votes generally outnumbering Democrat ones....

Government troops have killed at least 11 members of a rebel group in the southern Philippines that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the military said, sending local communities fleeing as a battle raged on Sunday.

...

Duterte has recently been warning about Islamic State taking root in the Philippines and said his country needed to avoid "contamination"..

Obama won the presidency on a promise of getting us out of Iraq and avoiding these types foreign interventions in the future; yet, the last 8 years has been a steady stream of foreign interference and wars.

Now, Obama is expanding operations in Somalia cynically tying his authority to the 2001 authorization against al Qaeda. He is once again expanding the authority to use force to include Shabob, an Islamist group that was formed in 2007 in response and opposition to the US invasion of Somalia. They just keep coming.

WASHINGTON — The escalating American military engagement in Somalia has led the Obama administration to expand the legal scope of the war against Al Qaeda, a move that will strengthen President-elect Donald J. Trump’s authority to combat thousands of Islamist fighters in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

The administration has decided to deem the Shabab, the Islamist militant group in Somalia, to be part of the armed conflict that Congress authorized against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to senior American officials. The move is intended to shore up the legal basis for an intensifying campaign of airstrikes and other counterterrorism operations, carried out largely in support of African Union and Somali government forces.

The executive branch’s stretching of the 2001 war authorization against the original Al Qaeda to cover other Islamist groups in countries far from Afghanistan — even ones, like the Shabab, that did not exist at the time — has prompted recurring objections from some legal and foreign policy experts.

The Shabab decision is expected to be publicly disclosed next month in a letter to Congress listing global deployments. It is part of the Obama administration’s pattern of relaxing various self-imposed rules for airstrikes against Islamist militants as it tries to help its partner forces in several conflicts…

The article goes on to explain all the rules Obama is breaking with these new actions.

The real question will be what will Trump do? He has said he wants to avoid all foreign interventions but...

The Times think they know the answer, Obama is only doing what he is doing in order to help Trump out.

The escalating American military engagement in Somalia has led the Obama administration to expand the legal scope of the war against Al Qaeda, a move that will strengthen President-elect Donald J. Trump’s authority to combat thousands of Islamist fighters in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

After the March 5 airstrike, the administration argued that the War Powers Resolution limits did not apply to strikes made both to aid African Union forces battling the Shabab and to defend American advisers. The idea was that Americans had been deployed to Somalia in part to counter Qaeda-linked Shabab elements, so the 2001 authorization covered their presence and strikes to defend them from any threat.

But as American partners have been going after the Shabab in general more often without any particular focus on individuals linked to Al Qaeda, it has been harder to point to any congressional authorization for such airstrikes that would satisfy the War Powers Resolution.

As the election neared, the administration decided it would be irresponsible to hand off Somali counterterrorism operations to Mr. Obama’s successor with that growing tension unresolved.

Inside Fidel Castro’s life of luxury and ladies while country starvedBy Laura Italiano November 27, 2016 |

With his shaggy beard and rumpled, olive-drab fatigues, Fidel Castro presented himself to the world as a modest man of the people.

At times, he claimed he made just 900 pesos ($43) a month and lived in a “fisherman’s hut” somewhere on the beach.

But Castro’s public image was a carefully crafted myth, more fiction than fact.

“While his people suffered, Fidel Castro lived in comfort — keeping everything, including his eight children, his many mistresses, even his wife, a secret,” wrote Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, Castro’s longtime bodyguard.

Sanchez’s book, “The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Líder Maximo,” describes his former boss’ hidden life of political ruthlessness, mistresses and greed.

Castro, who died Friday night at 90, made a personal fortune offering safe haven to drug traffickers, bedded a bevy of women over the decades, and once threatened his own brother, Raul, with execution when the brother lapsed into alcoholism in the ’90s, Sanchez’s book reveals.

Amazingly, most Cubans had no idea how, or even where, their secretive strongman actually lived....

Castro was a keen scuba diver who enjoyed exploring the Caribbean waters. The CIA hatched an elaborate plan whereby the Cuban president would be presented with a wet suit and scuba gear by his good friends in Washington.

Arousing no suspicion whatsoever, the suit was to be gifted to Castro following the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco when US backed forces attempted unsuccessfully to invade the island.Upon donning said suit, a toxic powder would poison the president.

...

2. The shell fish shocker

A variation on the wacky wet suit plan was to plant high explosives in a mollusc that Castro might be tempted to swim down to on one of his dives.

...

3. The cigars of doom

In many an iconic image, Castro can be seen chomping on one of the cigars Cuba is so famous for. A variety of plans were concocted to either lace them with poison or even have them blow up in his face.

A nine-story portrait of a young Fidel Castro has joined the towering images of fallen guerrillas overlooking Havana's Plaza of the Revolution, the massive square where Cuba on Monday begins bidding farewell to the man who ruled the island for nearly half a century.

GOOD RIDDANCE FIDELThe last of the Cold War Soviet stooges goes the way of his masters

November 28, 2016 Bruce Thornton

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

To paraphrase the old VE jump-rope rhyme, “A-tisket, a-tasket, Castro’s in his casket.” The last of the Cold War Soviet stooges has gone the way of his communist masters.

Encomia from the usual useful idiots are lighting up the internet, but don’t mind them. Like tantrum-throwing college students and George Soros rent-a-protestors, they are a machine for producing Republican voters. The Dem-wits, on the other hand, should pay attention to the Cuban immigrants and expatriates celebrating in Miami. They might find there a clue to how they lost Florida and the whole government. Opening up trade, as their messiah Obama did, with a regime that pockets all the profits while it jails protestors, that gives workers eight cents of every starry-eyed tourist’s dollar, makes for bad optics. Canoodling with a brutal dictator who crushes dissent, persecutes homosexuals, excludes blacks from the government, abuses the church, monopolizes wealth, and tortures dissidents in his gulag is not the way to win American votes.

And discount the extravagant praise for Castro’s political genius. For all his Marxist-Leninist rhetoric and international fan-boys, Castro was a typical, but savvier, Latin American dictator––a cacique, caudillo, jefe, El Señor Presidente, El Gran Chingon, a glorified version of the General Mapache from The Wild Bunch. If not for the Cold War, he would long ago have met the same gruesome fate as those other strutting, bombastic oppressors. Only with billions of dollars in Soviet support and cash for overpriced sugar––and John Kennedy’s foreign policy bungling–– was he able to leverage being 90 miles from the U.S into a geopolitical significance far beyond his deserts, along the way almost igniting a nuclear war. He paid the Soviets back by letting them use his soldiers as imperialist mercenaries in Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. After the USSR vanished like Trotsky from a May Day photo, oil and $18 billion in loans and grants from his fellow dictator Húgo Chavez, along with foreign investment from running-dog capitalists, kept Cuba from collapse. Castro repaid Húgo by skimming thousands of his doctors and other skilled professionals needed at home, and sending them to Venezuela.

More importantly, Castro, like many other Third-World communists or the PLO jihadists, was a genius at exploiting the romance of revolutionary violence and the radical chic endemic among Western bourgeois parlor pinks and caviar communists. For Europeans, Canadians, and a small number of Americans before Obama’s recent softening of travel restrictions, carefully orchestrated and surveilled tours of Cuba were like the hajj to Mecca for Western lefties. Like their political ancestors in the twenties and thirties gaping at the Soviet’s Potemkin economy, these rich, well-fed, politically free beneficiaries of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism ignored or rationalized away the poor, hungry, repressed Cubanos hidden behind the pastel-colored belle époque hotels and the restored ’57 Chevies.

Indeed, Cuba under Castro was perhaps the premier example of progressive moral idiocy and intellectual incoherence. Style and empty slogans like “A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past” trumped consistent principle and morality. Castro’s simple military uniform, his field cap, his cigar, his bushy beard; Che Guevara’s similar get-up improved by his matinee-idol looks and martyr’s death, seduced and thrilled comfortable Westerners who never worried about their next meal, or losing their freedom to slander their countries while giving aid and comfort to their enemies; who never feared the rifle-butts pounding their doors in the night, or the feel of El Che’s cold pistol on the back of their necks. So they strained authoritarian gnats allied with the West, while swallowing totalitarian camels working to destroy the West and the very freedom they enjoyed. That’s why psychopaths like Che and Mao still adorn hipster tee shirts, while Ronald Reagan, who helped free millions from communist tyranny, is still the left’s favorite “fascist.”

Of course, it was Castro and his regime who had more in common with fascism. The state’s control and plundering of the economy, the repression of human rights, the secret police, and the cult of personality surrounding the messianic leader are classic fascism. Likewise, apologies for Castro’s brutality always ring changes on those for Mussolini: “he made the trains run on time.” Bernie Sanders is a Castro fan, and even when he dialed back his praise during the Democrat primary, he had to say, “it would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they have made some good advances in healthcare, they are sending doctors all over the world. They have made some progress in education.”

We see here the morally bankrupt utilitarian calculus of progressives like Thomas Freidman, who waxes lyrical on China’s airports and wishes we could have a tyrant for a while. Historically illiterate, they don’t realize that for five thousand years, tyrants who monopolize resources and force can achieve a lot, at least in the short term. Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin in the thirties were admired for the great leaps in economic and infrastructure development, even as they murdered millions and turned their societies into police states. But all that improvement cost about 65 million dead.

And Hitler’s and Stalin’s regimes ultimately collapsed, as do all governments eventually that oppress their peoples and deny them freedom, the most important resource for human development and flourishing. It’s no surprise that Pharaoh could build the Great Pyramid or the Great King of Persia erect Persepolis, able as they were to coerce battalions of forced labor. The real miracle is the Athenian Parthenon, constructed by free citizens who voted in the Assembly to pay for it. More important, today Persepolis and the pyramids are Ozymandian fragments of long-lost greatness. But the Parthenon, though battered by time like the others, represents not the power and ego of a great king, but the ideals of political freedom and citizen self-rule it celebrated 2400 years ago, and that are still vibrant in our political order today.

Finally, the enduring fascination of the Western left with Cuba and Castro demonstrates their unhealthy lust for totalitarian power. To paraphrase Sylvia Plath’s slur against her own sex, they “adore a fascist, the boot in the face, the brute.” They may call it progressivism, dress it up with pseudo-science and pretenses to rational thought, perfume it with duplicitous calls for “freedom” and “equality,” but deep in their lizard brains is an ancient love of power, their seduction by Satan’s lie that we can be as gods. No matter the cost in freedom and human dignity, progressives will always choose the Great Leader and admire his willingness to break any number of eggs for the the mythical utopian omelet.

So good riddance, Fidel. Our totalitarian wannabes will have to find another thug to admire.

November 28, 2016France selects her Republican presidential nomineeBy Michele AntakiFrancois Fillon just won a landslide victory as the presidential nominee for France’s Republican party.

Two days ago, the former French premier was already seen as the winner at the end-of-campaign two-hour televised debate with his rival Alain Juppé, according to an online flash poll conducted afterwards.

Fillon’s performance was dazzling. Juppé, however, came out as rather stuck up and on the defensive. The first, lyrical, had presented his vision for France, a forward-looking France living with its times, yet rooted in its historical heritage and timeless values. The second, technical and tedious, appeared to be going down a "to do" checklist of disparate items with no real unifying thread -- gender equality, the duration of the working week… It seemed as if the voters had already made up their minds before even casting their ballots, judging from their jubilant faces and frantic ovations while listening to Fillon, contrasting with the more restrained applause greeting Juppé.

The candidates were, among other things, at odds over the identity of France. Juppé, reciting the globalist bible, expressed the opinion that it was her “rich diversity” that made France special, and that her “diverse identity” had to be celebrated. But Fillon emphasized that France was not “a multicultural nation.” And in a direct reference to Islamist militancy, he added: “ When you come to someone’s house, you don’t take it over. It’s a matter of courtesy.” He vowed to “clarify France’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and Qatar”, and to dissolve all groups affiliated to Salafism or the Muslim Brotherhood. “These organizations are outlawed in Egypt, does it make any sense for France to embrace them with open arms?” he pondered.

The 7,000+- strong crowd of the political rally was galvanized. Fillon had seemingly touched on a raw nerve. Many in France resented the battering of their national identity by a socialist government where one had to squint to spot a French minister, and where the Justice Ministry was, for several years, entrusted to a Guyana-born separatist who had once taken up arms against France. They complained that France's interests were no longer a priority. More criminals were outside the prisons than inside, the police were regularly beaten up or shot at, yet instructed not to respond to the assaults of the rabble. On the initiative of the Franco-Moroccan Minister of Education, Latin got replaced by Arabic and entire chapters of the history of France had to give way to the narrative of Muslim conquests. The French no longer felt at home, no longer recognized their France and they thought that it was not normal.

The previous era under Sarkozy the atlanticist had been none too glorious either. It saw the reinstatement of France within NATO's military command and ensuing erosion of her political independence so jealously defended by General de Gaulle. This led France down the path of a military adventurism contrary to her best interests in Libya and Syria.

Under Sarkozy, too, several of France's historical landmarks were unscrupulously sold to the lustful Gulf monarchies. The French, outraged but powerless, watched the jewels of their cultural heritage being removed from their nation’s sovereignty.

Sarkozy had also been the ardent advocate of a multicultural France during his presidency. At a 2008 political rally, he even went so far as declaring that interbreeding was an "obligation" and “not a choice”, and that if “Republican volunteerism” did not do the trick, then “the State would move to more coercive measures.”

Yet, it was that same Sarkozy who also declared in a great flight of theatrical rhetoric that nothing was "more dangerous than a wounded identity, a humiliated identity”. Admittedly, these words were addressed to Saudi Arabia, during an official trip to that country, not to France…

Sarkozy was right in seeing great destructive power in a wounded identity and this is precisely why Fillon’s empowering discourse electrified the audience. He had tapped into an enormous pool of pent-up energy, his words were music to the ears of the crowd that chanted "Fillon, Fillon!" Feelings thought of as lost forever were suddenly reawakened -- the belief in the greatness of France, her destiny, her identity shaped by a 1,500-year history, the pride of being French… Such an emotional outburst had not been seen for a very long time, probably since the days of the great general. The patriotic flame was not dead, after all, just smoldering under the ashes, waiting for an idealistic yet strong leader capable of reawakening the spark in people’s hearts. Judging from reactions, that day seemed to have arrived. Coincidentally, that man was a Gaullist.

Today’s overwhelming victory is further proof that France is ready to turn a page on her decline of recent years and embrace Fillon’s ambitious and uplifting project. She may have even selected her next president.

Doug, so you believe Barron is autistic and Hillary has Parkinsons. Is it the fact that you saw it on YouTube that convinces you or the logic of their arguments, or is it the combination of both that makes it true in your world?

A couple of questions. You've commented that the Jill Stein recount is a scam. Why a scam? I don't see a problem with an audit of the votes. I read that they have a paper system backing up the electronic count so a comparison of the electronic count and the paper count should put to rest any assertion that the electronic count is mistaken, or hacked.

With respect to VAT - how does a country that has a VAT bias against imports? I'm still puzzled by that claim.

Was Justin Trudeau’s effusive eulogy of Fidel Castro a message to Donald Trump?

For decades, Canadian governments have used Cuba to stick a thumb in America’s eye – a small gesture of defiance to remind our giant ally that when we disagree with them, we don’t hesitate to say so, and to act so.

In praising a man loathed by so many Americans, including the president-elect, Mr. Trudeau was acting as his father’s son, reminding everyone that the Castros and the Trudeaus go back, that successive Canadian governments never accepted or agreed with the American boycott of the socialist regime and that whatever foreign-policy heresies the incoming administration might be preparing to commit, Canada is willing and able to go its own way.

Mr. Trudeau released the controversial statement on Saturday.

“It was a statement to recognize the passing of a former head of state … with which Canada has had a deep and lasting friendship,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters Sunday at Le Francophonie in Madagascar. He made no apologies for his choice of words, which has attracted attention and criticism around the world.

Certainly, the gesture was calculated. Mr. Trudeau was in Cuba less than a fortnight ago, where he met with President Raul Castro, but not with Fidel. He may well have known then that the end was near.

Mr. Trudeau could simply have authorized whatever statement Global Affairs and his own office worked up, which would doubtless have carefully balanced the Cuban dictator’s outsized influence on the 20th century with his record of stifling and punishing dissent. But Mr. Trudeau’s statement had the sound of his own voice, and its unqualified praise – “a larger-than-life leader”… “a legendary revolutionary and orator” … “my father was very proud to call him a friend” – had both American and Canadian conservatives fuming.

“Shameful and embarrassing,” declared Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, while Conservative leadership candidate Lisa Raitt said on Facebook: “The Prime Minister should be ashamed of himself. He must retract this statement and apologize.”

Even Mr. Trudeau’s former policy adviser, Roland Paris, was unhappy. “It’s not a statement I would have recommended,” the University of Ottawa professor tweeted Saturday, observing Mr. Castro was a “historic figure, yes, but for both good and ill.”

But Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion backed up the Prime Minister Sunday, saying the purpose of Mr. Trudeau’s statement was “to focus on the positive the day where this man passed away,” which would leave Canada well placed to encourage democratic reform in the wake of Mr. Castro’s passing. “Mr. Trudeau personally will be in a good situation to do that,” he said on CTV’s Question Period, “because he’s well-perceived in Cuba from a lot of people.”

Contrast the Canadian government’s reaction with Mr. Trump’s characterization of Mr. Castro in his official statement as “a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

During the election, Mr. Trump harshly criticized the Obama administration’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, which played host to the initial, off-the-record talks between the two sides. Mr. Trump promised to close the embassy that Mr. Obama had opened in Havana, and claimed that somehow the United States should have gotten a better deal in return for relaxing trade and travel restrictions.

It’s uncertain what Mr. Trump’s policy toward Cuba will be. Criticizing Mr. Obama’s conciliatory approach during the election campaign helped win the votes of Cuban Americans in Florida, which Mr. Trump narrowly won. But the president-elect has given notice that he might amend or even abandon some of his election pledges: The wall with Mexico might be a fence in places; global warming might not be a Chinese hoax after all.

Incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus made it clear, however, that unless the Cuban government delivered more freedom for its people, Mr. Trump intended to stand firm. “There isn’t going to be a one-way relationship from the United States to Cuba without some action from the Castro administration,” he told Fox News Sunday.

If Mr. Trump does intend to refreeze the Cuban-American relationship, then Mr. Trudeau’s unreserved praise for Mr. Castro can be seen as putting the coming administration on notice that Canada disagreed with the American approach before, and will disagree with it again if need be.

It’s no secret that the Langevin Block was shocked and dismayed by the New York business magnate’s surprise victory on Nov. 8. While affirming his willingness to work with the new administration, Mr. Trudeau is signalling with his statement on Mr. Castro’s passing that if Mr. Trump undermines the Western alliance, starts a trade war with China and reneges on the nuclear agreement with Iran, then Canada will not hesitate to dissent.

The Prime Minister’s eulogy to Fidel Castro may one day be seen as the first item in a cavalcade of differences between Canada under Mr. Trudeau and America under Mr. Trump. The second might be if Mr. Trudeau attends El Comandante’s funeral."

If Mr. Trump does intend to refreeze the Cuban-American relationship, then Mr. Trudeau’s unreserved praise for Mr. Castro can be seen as putting the coming administration on notice that Canada disagreed with the American approach before, and will disagree with it again if need be.

See the article I put up above by another Canadian journalist about Trudeau delusions of grandeur.

I do agree with that. Ignoring countries as if they don't exist is absurd. The US embargo of goods certainly hurt Cuba but it didn't hurt Castro and it certainly didn't do anything to change his ways; especially, when most of the world including Canada was dealing with him.

I feel the same way about every country. The idea that we don't have diplomatic relations with some is to my mind silly especially when we always deal with them back door through third parties. Everyone knows how the game is played.

To my mind, we gain more by interface even if the face-to-face is confrontational than not having that direct interface. It would also provide more intelligence on what is actually going on in the country than is provided by satellites or self-serving dissidents like Chalabi in Iraq.

Stein said that she doesn't expect there to be any changes in the election results. She is doing it just to prove the integrity of the system. The first part speaks for itself. To the second, I personally say bullshit. But that part is irrelevant.

What she also said (initially) was that she 'had no evidence of hacking whatsoever' but was raising money for a recall to insure the integrity of the election process.

Initially, she asked for $2 million which would cover the filing costs in the 3 states.

Then, she upped it to $3 million in order to cover lawyer fees (estimated at $1/3 million).

Then, as the funds rolled in she raised the figure she wanted to $5 million and then again to $7 million. Suddenly, the lawyer fees on her website are states as $2-$3 million.

From the beginning there has been a disclaimer on her website that she can't guarantee that there will even be recounts in any of the 3 states or that all the money would go to the recount effort. She then promised any surplus money would be spend on future efforts to assure 'voting integrity', a statement coming from the left that is so vague it could cover anything from voter registration efforts to more lawsuits to driving illegal aliens to the poll to vote.

Somewhere along the way the Hillary Clinton 'team' got involved and you have to question who actually came up with the idea of a recount or who is financing this wealthy initiative, Clinton's wealthy doners or the left wing snowflakes cowering in their safe places or protesting in front of Trump Towers.

[I say Hillary's team as she no doubt wouldn't support the recount given her words at numerous campaign events where she declared that to question the vote results would be a clear danger to the US political system, nay to the very union.]

SCAM

noun1.a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit; swindle.

Sure sounds like a scam to me.

Of course, if you are a liberal intellectual (or as I call them a professional dick) like Paul Krugman you would depict the recount thusly...

Personally I'd like to see them audit the paper ballots versus the electronic counts regularly as a check on the systems integrity. Too bad she's got to go cap in hand going begging to get it done but it looks like an audit will be done. Can she pocket the excess funds and party with it?

It sure would make things interesting if they discovered any irregularities. It would be interesting in a bad way that is but is that a good enough reason to not verify the results?

You are a friggin moron. It's been reported in more than one place that if Stein had not run and Hillary had received most of the Stein votes (likely) she might have taken all 3 key states, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

With respect to VAT - how does a country that has a VAT bias against imports? I'm still puzzled by that claim...

...or a VAT subsidizes exports...

I admit I am not that familiar with the detailed workings of VAT but I was talking in general terms regarding so-called 'free-trade' principles of treating both domestic and foreign suppliers of goods equally.

If I understand the concept of the VAT, for the domestic supplier, if the VAT is removed on exports, he is able to sell his product in a foreign market cheaper than what he sells it for in the domestic market (net of the difference in VAT and any additional shipping charges). For the exporter into a VAT country, his costs for importing goods into a VAT country go up by the VAT reducing his profit margin and providing some level of disincentive for shipping there. In this case, the VAT acts kind of like a tariff.

In Canada, the VAT is a line item on the bill. The money goes to the government and plays no role in the profit margin other than the costs of accounting and remitting payment which is quite small. As a business I am required to add the VAT on top of my bill to a client. On the accounting side I keep a tally of all the money I spend on the VAT (on my suppliers bills) and all the money I collect in VAT. I subtract the amount I paid from the amount I collected and remit the difference to the government. You can even get the government to send you VAT money if you've paid out more than you've collected.

With respect to a US company doing business in Canada, say a retailer such as Walmart, they've got to 'get in the system' and do the VAT thing, just like any Canadian company, there is no additional burden on the US company.

Internet sales of digital goods (i.e. software) seems to have eluded much of the VAT systems (local and State taxes as well) much to the consternation of the taxation authorities around the world. I believe some of this is addressed in these trade agreements they are now trying to forge.

When I deal with a foreign client, such as someone in the USA, I don't charge them VAT. In that sense a Canadian client might feel like they are paying more than a USA client but they aren't, just taxed like all Canadians. My bottom line stays the same, my client can deduct what is paid me in VAT from their bill and the USA client has to deal with the VAT (i.e. state tax) imposed by their government(s), if there is any. In any case it doesn't make it any harder, or easier, for a USA company to deal in Canada.

Yes, VAT's regressive. They try to address that by sending checks to lower income folk. That also helps encourage folk to 'get in the system'. One of VAT's marketing slogans is "You use it you lose it".

Last week in Savannah was interesting. All over the media there was election talk. Trump this, Trump that, Hillary could shoulda woulda, yadda yadda yadda but in my interactions with people there was not a single remark made but one and that was at the airport as I was leaving.

I tried to do my airline check in online, and then at the kiosk at the airport, but it wanted to know when I was going to return to the US and I would check "I don't know return". I told this to the check in lady and she said "They are trying to build a wall and keep you out".

Quirk-O, you got this habit of always introducing by saying you don't know what you are talking about.

Right, do it the Bob way (also called the Trump way), pull shit out of your ass and when it is obvious that it is unequivocally false continue to insist that it is true.

Bob's use of the pattern is has become commonplace here. There are numerous examples of Trump using it during the campaign. I recall his interview in which Jake Tapper in which he was challenged on the silly numbers he was using. His first retort, 'I saw it on the internet so it must be true.' When pressed he defensively stated, 'It's all over the internet. How can you blame me for using the numbers?"

I can imagine our boy Bob reading this and thinking 'I don't get it. Trump sounds reasonable to me.'

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.